It’s so easy to be uncertain.
It’s easy to ask someone else’s opinion, to land on the logical decision, to do what’s expected. Whether picking out clothes, deciding where to work, or even discussing marriage and kids, the fastest way to stress relief is to choose tradition. Finding the right clothes is all about body type. Getting a job means school and hard work and great stock options. Marriage and kids? Statistics tell us that two parents raise more successful kids than just one.
Our parents’ generation proved this stuff. Our grandparents’ generation did too. History has shown that back then, these expectations made for success. In a word, they worked.
But do they work now? Do they work for you?
I bet they don’t. Most of those that read this blog are under thirty-five – we’re the generation people like to call Millennials.
And it’s no secret that us Millennials are on the cusp of something new.
We took blogging and made it into New Media.
We took the Green Movement and made it into a cultural statement.
We took a presidential election and made history.
And when I look at what’s going on with “the kids these days” – myself included – all of these new things make me excited. I think of how awesome it is to have been born in eighty-three, at the beginning of a generation of people that are going to change the way everyone thinks, and the way we think of tradition…and I also wonder at how scary it is to have to be one of the first people to believe in it, no matter how weird it all seems.
I recently told two of my elders (identities withheld) that I went to Boston as a representative for Broke & Beautiful. No matter how I explained it, though, they couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea. It’s just a silly website. Why would they pay for a girl with a website to fly to Boston? Don’t you just write about stuff online? It’s not really journalism, is it?
They don’t get it: this is new journalism. It’s new media. It’s not traditional, and no one really knows how it all works yet. That’s what’s so great about it: it’s so young, and so raw, that it’s just now being explored. It’s tradition, waiting to happen…if we come together to make it so.
The best thing about being young in 2010 is that we’re in the perfect place to change the course of history.
The worst thing about being young in 2010 is the fear that we can’t do it. The uncertainty. The urge to ask someone else if it’s smart, if it’s logical, if it makes sense.
Forget about tradition, and about what makes sense. Wear what you want. Write what you want. Do the research and get informed and make the decisions that fit you. Because the way we’re handling our bodies, our blogs, our consumerism, our politics…it’s all getting press, because it’s all totally new.
Let’s keep surprising our elders. Let’s start a revolution.
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RT @TheDemoiselles: Millennials: We Are the Revolution http://bit.ly/bYU5qt
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Posted by Jennifer Nicole | August 27, 2010, 5:56 pmI am all about the Revolution. I believe that we can and need to do things radically different than in the past. But I also believe our generation needs to be more aware of what those changes may mean. We need to be aware that when we raise the cost of food to match its “real cost,” there may be people who can’t afford it anymore. We need to be aware that when we made online blogging more powerful than print in many cases, we made it very difficult for people to have full-time jobs as journalists and do the in-depth, investigative reporting that’s essential for democracy. We need to be aware that when we make the Green Movement into a cultural statement that trends change. It doesn’t mean that any of these changes are bad – but we need to put them in their full context. The best revolution promotes democracy, respects and improves the lives of the oppressed, and builds ideas in a way that they will stick with people and help them act on them, no matter what the current fashions are.
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Posted by storiteller | August 29, 2010, 5:03 pmThis was a really thought-provoking post. As Millennials, I think we are on the precipice of something revolutionary and big as you said. But the older I get, the more I’m beginning to respect tradition and the perspectives of my parents. The way I see it, there are a lot of valuable things you can learn from tradition and take with you as you forge a new path.
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Posted by lisa | September 2, 2010, 5:34 pmThis is a great post. I am one of those people that believe that we should have some kind of balance between the old and the new. I think the older generations thought more for what they believed in, and now, even though we are changing things, we aren’t fighting like we used too. I think that is what my fear is, that some of us don’t want to start a revolution even if it is just starting a blog or going green.
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Posted by thefatandskinny | September 4, 2010, 10:58 pmOnce we decide upon a cause, yes, we will be truly formidable. However, should the ritalin run out sooner than the oil, I see a problem.
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Posted by ellie | September 6, 2010, 6:39 am